Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates

Remember as a youngster, someone in the family gets a box of chocolates. You know, the ones that come with a little map hinting at what might be inside each chocolate morsel.   The picture and descriptions of each chocolate all look and sound delicious but experience has told us that is not always the case.  So after much deliberation, you make your choice and blah! The first bite into that soft nougat turns out to have a brick hard caramel inside that takes forever to suck into a soft chewy mass. 

It had been an early departure from Bryce Canyon the previous day with a planned stop at Antelope Island Park. The park is located just 15 miles west of Salt Lake City on an island in the Great Salt Lake. The island has a herd of bison that roam freely around the park and it seemed worth the short side trip to check it out.

As we good closer to the park we found that they were working on the causeway out to the island and there were going to be construction delays.  It was going to be a long day without the delay so we made a management decision to include the park on our next trip.

 

Slightly ahead of schedule we arrived early at our next planned stop in Pocatello, Idaho.  We chose Pocatello as it was at the junction of Highways 15 and 84. The weather forecast was predicting a SLIGHT possibility of snow on our planned route through Montana and Spokane Washington and if it looked bad we had the option to go west and retrace our route back to Penticton and avoiding snow.  As chance would have it, we missed the exit from the highway to the Pocatello Motel 6. We had to drive another 12 miles to a native Casino before we found another exit.

The sun was shining, the weather forecast was still “a possibility of snow”, so based on the current information, we took a chocolate out of our box and decided to drive another 50 miles  further north to Idaho Falls where we scored a lovely motel room thanks to a coupon we picked up at a truck stop. Things were looking good.

 

Blah! The chocolate had a hard, tasteless inside.  We woke up to find that the SLIGHT possibility of snow turned into a full on blizzard with road closures in the pass we were to drive through from Idaho and Montana. 

Thank heaven; the motel had a great free breakfast. We needed those calories as we spent two hours backtracking the 60 miles to Pocatello with near white out conditions and another 90 minutes driving east into Idaho before the snow became rain.  Completely drained, we stayed overnight at a Motel 6 in Baker City, Oregon.

Not wanting to sample anymore chocolates, we made the next day a long day and drove all the way back to Penticton.  Not the way we wanted to end the Great Road Trip of 2014 but it has left room for future Great Road Trips.

 

 

 

Bryce is Nyce

With five national parks, Utah claims the title of America’s national park capital.  We have revised our bucket list to visit all five parks in our lifetime.  Our visit to Bryce Canyon National Park means one down and four too go, so stay tuned.

Leaving Vegas for the drive into Utah and Bryce, we decided to visit the Neon Bone Yard, home to some of the most iconic neon signage that has flickered and hummed over Vegas since the 40’s. It was a wonderful place to hang for an hour, getting an insight into the history of Las Vegas through its neon signs.  However, it was little unsettling to see and hear about these vintage signs that I first saw in 1969 as I have not quite come to grips with the fact that I can now be considered vintage and fast approaching heritage status.

 The weather was a mixed bag with sun, rain and sleet for the 3-4 hour drive to Bryce. The latest weather forecast for Bryce was mixed and snow was not out of the question.  We stopped for lunch in St. George, Utah.  A lovely little city that we would definitely consider as a place to escape winter.   The city annually hosts the world senior games and has a wealth of sport facilities and outdoor activities to keep anyone busy.  

Bryce Canyon’s rim sits at between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, similar to the Grand Canyon.  We hit a sleety snow as we crossed over one mountain pass that had us second guessing our decision to visit Bryce. Thankfully, the weather smartened up and we arrived at Bryce Canyon Village with clear skies but with a temperature hovering around the freezing mark. 

 

We woke with the sun streaming through the flimsy curtains of our room.  Other than that, the room was well appointed with microwave, fridge, big flat screen television, free wifi and eerily quiet after the craziness of Las Vegas. 



 

Bryce Canyon is definitely not as grand as the Grand Canyon but it quickly became our favourite canyon.

 

The depth of the canyon is not as deep as the Grand and this allows you to get up close and personal with the canyon without risking cardiac arrest.  



 

With no donkey pooh to worry about, you can spend most of your time looking out and up at the awesome vistas.









 

The hoodoos that are found everywhere and are what set Bryce apart from its sister parks.  With very little imagination required, they take on easily recognizable shapes such as forts, castles, faces and as lunch time approached, food shapes.



 

It was a exhilarating day exploring the many trails into the canyon and along the rim. The wonderful day and bottle of wine at dinner made for a restful sleep as we had a long drive the next day. We have stops planned in Montana and Spokane, Washington before heading home.

Las Vegas’ Dirty Little Secret

Las Vegas hosted almost 40,000,000 people last year but less than a 1,000,000 people take advantage of this little gem. Located a short 24 kilometres from the strip, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area at 4,000 hectares, is too small to be called a national park, but with a beauty and diversity that make it a perfect choice to be part of the National Landscape Conservation System (also known as the National Conservation Lands).



“The System is a 27-million-acre (110,000 km²) collection of lands in 887 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West.” (Wikipedia)

The Canyon has been in our travel bucket for 40 years and we finally got to check it off. Definitely not the Grand Canyon, a smaller more intimate place, the Red Rock Canyon area was an ocean floor, 600,000,000 million years ago, then a swamp for 400,000,000 years, and then at about 180, 000,000 million years ago, desertification started. Over the last 250,000,000 years, tectonic shifts and thrusts have exposed many different rock formations providing the area with a wonderful myriad of earth tone colours and stunning rock formations. 

 

The Canyon provides numerous trails for hiking, a 13 mile (21 kilometres) scenic drive with numerous viewing points along the way. It is a perfect place for a bike ride or a nice training run for your next half marathon. We chose to spend our time hiking.


 

We woke up to a wind and sand storm warning for the day with wind gusts forecast to reach 40 miles per hour (72 kilometres per hour).  Looking outside our hotel window we could see the palm trees already bent half over in the wind. With only one day left in Vegas it was now or never to see the Canyon.

Thanks to Naggedy Ann, our GPS, we were safely and efficiently directed to the Visitors Information Centre. A newly constructed facility that was well thought out, beautifully tucked into the landscape and with large outdoor displays explaining all that we were about to see in our visit.  

Sadly the wind was howling which drove us to rush through the informative displays. Hope we didn’t miss anything important, like are there any poisonous snakes or lizards. The Canyon is home to wild burros, Desert bighorn sheep and a protected habitat for the Desert tortoise.

 

The western horizon was showing some seriously black and rain filled clouds, quickly making their way to the Canyon, so we opted for one of the shorter hikes to begin the day.  We were dressed warmly but hiking in torrential downpours with 40 mile an hour winds would in all likelihood suck so we did not want to wander far from the car.  

 

The hike took us up close and personal with walls of the escarpment.  From far away, the walls look red but close up they took on a more ochre (brown-yellow) colour.  







About 65,000,000 years ago, a shift/fault called the Keystone Thrust occurred.  “The Keystone thrust was part of a series of thrust faults that ran through much of western North America and through the Red Rock Conservation Area. The movement of this fault forced the older gray sedimentary rock over the younger red rocks, forming the varicolored landscape that can be seen in the mountain today. The thrust is exposed over a distance of 13 miles along the Red Rock escarpment.” (Wikipedia)

As we worked our way closer to the face of the escarpment, the clouds got blacker, sputters of rain started and the wind gusts got more fierce. Dressed for it, we pressed on. As we moved inward, rock climbers were making their way out. The walls of the escarpment are perfect for rock climbing, although not in wind storms so their day was over while ours was just starting.

Luck was with us and the worst of the rain skirted our location and by the time we made our way back to the car, the clouds had moved on to Vegas and the day was looking up. However the wind gusts showed little signs of slowing down. With the sunnier weather, we decided that a slightly longer hike was manageable. We chose the “Calico Tanks”, at about 10 kilometres round trip, the trail promised a little surprise at the end.

As we entered the trail, we discover large perfectly carved sandstone blocks littering the trail entrance.  Before being a conservation area, a sandstone quarry was developed on the site in the early 20^th Century. Shipping costs killed the business though it was reopened for a short period during the early days of Los Vegas’ development, providing building materials to the expanding city.

The trail took us mostly up. Despite the almost 1,000,000 visitors, it seemed like we had the trail to our selves passing only a handful of groups along the way. Sadly most visitors were of the drive by variety.

Every time we climbed over a ridge we exposed ourselves to the wind gusts but for the most part, the trail was protected from the wind and it was a warm and pleasant scramble up the rocky trail.

We were rewarded with a beautiful little pocket of water all be it with white caps due to the wind gusts. As we made our way back down, the wind had given up trying to blow us off the mountain and quieted down, a perfect end to the day. As I showered that night, I found I had taken a bit of the Canyon with me, as dust had found its way into my many nooks and crannies.

 

We are leaving Vegas tomorrow and to be truthful are not too sad about it. This is one story that happened in Vegas and won't stay in Vegas

Vegas Babeee!

 

My first visit to Vegas was in the fall of 1969. I had just graduated from High School and had spent the summer working as a bell boy in a hotel. My tips were able to  pay for a trip to Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Las Vegas.  

 

 

 

In Vegas, Elvis had just completed the first of his huge five year run of shows in Vegas. Howard Hughes was in the third year of his stay at the Desert Inn. He moved in to the hotel in 1966, after taking and entire floor for a year, they asked him to leave; instead he bought the place. He bought up other hotels, such as the Castaways, New Frontier, Landmark, Sands and the Silver Slipper which he bought because the landmark silver slipper neon sign was visible from his room and kept him awake at night. 

Frank, Dean and Sammy were in the tabloids for smoozing with the mob.

My second visit was in 1974 on Road Trip 1. Nonie and I stayed at the Tropicana Hotel home of the famed American version of the Folies Bergere and the beginning of the show girl legends of Vegas.   Elvis was still knocking them dead and Nonie and I got tickets for Vikki Carr, unable to afford Frank, Dean or Sammy who were still denying that they knew anyone connected with the mob.    

Flash forward 40 years and we’re baaaack. Elvis, Frank, Dean and Sammy are dead and we can hardly recognize the names of much of the talent appearing at the Casinos. 

The strip is longer, bigger and brighter but underlying all the glitz, it is still the same place we visited 40 years ago all be it with volcanoes, pirate ships, dancing waters, pyramids.......

and the Fremont Experience, the biggest beer ad in the world.  






 

In 1974 we spent around $30 to see Vikki Carr which included 2 free drinks; 40 years later we spent close to $120 to see Vegas, The Show, drinks extra.  The show was a montage of different acts that played Vegas from its early days to the 80’s. An Elton John impersonator closed the show.  So Eighties!

Couldn't afford the Tropicana this trip so had to make do with a visit to the old Neon sign that was out front in 1974 and can now be seen in the Las Vegas Neon Bone Yard.

As we wandered around the Bone Yard, it seem like most of the Vegas from our past could be found here. 

That is, except Circus, Circus, it hasn't changed a bit although we have. I had more hair, I swear.







 

 

A Visit to a Seventh Natural Wonder of the World Runner Up

 

Viewing the Grand Canyon from anywhere but at the rim is not that impressive because you can’t really see until you get there. But boy when you get there, it can take your breath away. As we stood ooohing and aaaawing at our first sight, a couple joined us and within few seconds the lady was bawling her eyes out, she was so overcome by the beauty of the Canyon. What a Cry Baby!

 

As described in Wikipedia, “The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,000 feet).  Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted”.

 

What took nearly 730,000,000,000 days to create took us 1/365,000,000,000 of that time to explore.   Not a huge investment of time for a finalist in the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World as voted by people on the internet, most of whom have never even been to the places they have voted for, because if they had, the canyon should have at least made top ten.

The voting is still happening, so who can say. Currently the Amazon Rain Forest is #1. Ho-hum!

 

We visited the South rim which is open year round and is just south of the North rim by about 10 miles. The south rim sits at an elevation that varies from 7,000 to 8,000 feet. As the Grand Canyon is in that other country and as a gesture of international good will, I will quote all facts and figures in feet.

 

 

We spent our first day exploring the rim trails and getting our selves acclimatized to the altitude before making our way down into the canyon the next day. We were amazed, as the sun set, the canyon walls changed colours.  Very cool!

 

 

Day two saw us make our way down into the canyon.  We were told to arrive early to the trailhead, with the intent to get down the trail before the donkeys.  Donkeys are used to pack stuff down into the valley, including people.  It was not early enough.

 

 

 

The downy part of our hike was wonderful with views that amazed every step of the way except for the steps necessary to avoid the donkey pooh.  

 

 

 

 

 

Coming back up, the donkey pooh was the least of our problems. Sucking up the thin oxygen kept us busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 A grand end to a grand visit.